Since some time now the Steam Flatpak cannot start up and I have no idea why this happens.
Web research leads to basically nothing that is related to what I experience so I assume it has something to do with my system. Other Flatpaks start up normally and I can use them.
When resetting everything related to the Steam Flatpak and reinstalling it from Flathub it loads and installs the Flatpak and then installs all necessary stuff
[various update-related stuff]
setup.sh[4598]: Forced use of runtime version for 32-bit libcurl.so.4
setup.sh[4598]: Found newer runtime version for 32-bit libSDL2-2.0.so.0. Host: 0.2400.0 Runtime: 0.2600.5
setup.sh[4598]: Forced use of runtime version for 32-bit libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0
setup.sh[4598]: Found newer runtime version for 32-bit libvulkan.so.1. Host: 1.3.224 Runtime: 1.3.239
setup.sh[4598]: Forced use of runtime version for 32-bit libdbusmenu-glib.so.4
setup.sh[4598]: Forced use of runtime version for 32-bit libcurl-gnutls.so.4
setup.sh[4598]: Forced use of runtime version for 32-bit libdbusmenu-gtk.so.4
setup.sh[4598]: Forced use of runtime version for 64-bit libcurl.so.4
setup.sh[4598]: Found newer runtime version for 64-bit libSDL2-2.0.so.0. Host: 0.2400.0 Runtime: 0.2600.5
setup.sh[4598]: Found newer runtime version for 64-bit libvulkan.so.1. Host: 1.3.224 Runtime: 1.3.239
setup.sh[4598]: Forced use of runtime version for 64-bit libcurl-gnutls.so.4
steam.sh[2]: Steam client's requirements are satisfied
So everything looks good up to this point. The small Steam update windows poppend up several times indicating the running installation/update. The output then continues:
[2023-08-17 22:47:50] Startup - updater built Jul 28 2023 18:44:09
[2023-08-17 22:47:50] Startup - Steam Client launched with: '/home/dirk/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam' '-no-cef-sandbox'
08/17 22:47:50 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1690583737)/tid(5467)
[2023-08-17 22:47:50] Loading cached metrics from disk (/home/dirk/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/package/steam_client_metrics.bin)
[2023-08-17 22:47:50] Failed to load cached hosts file (File 'update_hosts_cached.vdf' not found), using defaults
[2023-08-17 22:47:50] Using the following download hosts for Public, Realm steamglobal
[2023-08-17 22:47:50] 1. https://cdn.steamstatic.com, /client/, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1, source = 'baked in'
[2023-08-17 22:47:50] Verifying installation...
[2023-08-17 22:47:50] Verification complete
XRRGetOutputInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xf0d328f0
XRRGetCrtcInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xf0d311c0
GetWin32Stats: display was not open yet, good
GetWin32Stats: display was not open yet, good
(The last line gets printed twice, yes.)
The first startup process then hangs there for a few seconds and continues with this.
I am pretty sure that it has to do something specificially with the Steam Flatpak
That is also possible. But then why is it working for everyone else? I used the steam flatpak multiple times today with no issues. I guess you could also ask the same question for the system package issue theory.
How about the package manager version? Is that working? That could give some hints on whether it's the system or the Flatpak package.
Arch, yes. This is what all the people who had to remove xdg Desktop portal use. How could they remove it if it's a dependency of flatpak? Maybe they don't have flatpak.
If you have too much time on your hands, you could try another fresh arch installation on another hard-drive. If it works there, we know it has to be a system package. If it doesn't, it's probably the Flatpak.
Thatโs the question here :) Flatpak it self canโt be the issue because other Flatpaks work. My system canโt be the issue because my system works. And yes, the Steam Flatpak on itโs own also canโt be the issue because then more people would be affected and I would find something during web research.
How about the package manager version?
There isn't really a Steam version in the repos but only in multilib. So I enabled it and installed steam from there. It also crashes. The only difference is that there are some fontconfig things it cannot understand.
GetWin32Stats: display was not open yet, good
GetWin32Stats: display was not open yet, good
steamwebhelper.sh[19338]: Runtime for steamwebhelper: defaulting to /home/dirk/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-heavy
steamwebhelper.sh[19338]: glibc >= 2.34, partially disabling sandbox until CEF supports clone3()
Fontconfig warning: line 5: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 72: non-double matrix element
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 72: non-double matrix element
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 80: saw unknown, expected number
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-yes-antialias.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/11-lcdfilter-default.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-vera.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/30-metric-aliases.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/40-nonlatin.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-generic.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-latin.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/48-spacing.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/49-sansserif.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/51-local.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-generic.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-latin.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/65-nonlatin.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"
CAppInfoCacheReadFromDiskThread took 0 milliseconds to initialize
src/steamUI/steamuisharedjscontroller.cpp (540) : Failed creating offscreen shared JS context
src/steamUI/steamuisharedjscontroller.cpp (540) : Fatal assert; application exiting
08/19 01:26:26 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1690583737)/tid(19319)
assert_20230819012626_30.dmp[19438]: Uploading dump (out-of-process)
/tmp/dumps/assert_20230819012626_30.dmp
dirk ~ $
assert_20230819012626_30.dmp[19438]: Finished uploading minidump (out-of-process): success = yes
assert_20230819012626_30.dmp[19438]: response: CrashID=bp-175add07-33af-421a-a870-828612230818
assert_20230819012626_30.dmp[19438]: file ''/tmp/dumps/assert_20230819012626_30.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-175add07-33af-421a-a870-828612230818''
So it's Steam in combination with my system. This time the mentioned dump is there but it does not contain any information I could use/understand.
This is what all the people who had to remove xdg Desktop portal use. How could they remove it if itโs a dependency of flatpak?
When reinstalling Flatpak it asked for xdg-desktop-portal-impl to be installed and offered multiple packages that provide it.
It also worked earlier during testing (at least one time it started up and let me log in but subsequently it crashed on any of the further tries) so all dependencies are satisfied.
Okay... Now that you have the non flatpak steam, could you remove flatpak and xdg-desktop-portal*?
Reboot and launch steam again.
This is the last idea I have for now... If this also doesn't help, it is probably a different issue than this and this, and you should report it to valve.
Thanks for all your help with this. Unfortunately Steam still scrashes. The xdg-pdesktop-portal packages arenโt installed. Only the Flatpak package seems to have them as hard dependency.
Valve said they wonโt give any support here because Iโm not using Ubuntu with Gnome.
Well that's that then. I also have no idea what to try anymore... I guess you'll just have to wait until some random update fixes the issue. Sorry.
Edit: Since you reinstalled everything, I think it could be some cache on your system that went bad. That would explain why both the Flatpak and native versions don't work and why the rest of your system works. But I have no idea where that cache might be...